At his Chandigarh house, next to a garlanded photograph of 52-year-old Y Puran Kumar, a 2001-batch IPS officer from the Haryana cadre, was another portrait — that of Dr B R Ambedkar.

This is how his family and friends wanted to bid farewell to Puran, who belonged to the Mala community, a Scheduled Caste, “since his Dalit identity was the essence of his existence for the past many decades”.

Puran was found dead with a gunshot wound at his Chandigarh residence on Tuesday. A batchmate who was at his house on Friday said, “I can’t believe he is gone. What has happened is unfortunate.”

When the news of Puran’s death broke, his wife, Amneet P Kumar, a 2001-batch IAS officer, was in Japan as part of an official delegation led by Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini. Currently posted as Commissioner

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